Quad Chart Danielle Ho

Autonomous Golf Carts Objective/Purpose Layers of Autonomy Approach Nowadays with Tesla, Google, and various other automakers, driverless cars are now something to be reckoned with. While we’re definitely not at the stage where we as students can build such a car, my idea was to approach autonomous golf carts. While a golf cart obviously isn’t as big or impactful as a car, it definitely can have its benefits when used wisely. For my case, I would like to explore the idea of having an autonomous golf cart that is would be able to drive you across campus. Have your next class in less than 10 minutes and its all the way across campus? No problem. Use an app to call the autonomous golf cart and you’re there in no time. Layers of Autonomy Level 0: All major systems such as steering, accelerating, and braking are controlled by humans. Level 1: Certain systems may be controlled by the car, but not simultaneously. Level 2: A car is able to offer automated functions at the same time such as accelerating and steering, but still requires the driver to respond to traffic situations or changing lanes. Level 3: A car is able to manage most responsibilities in the right conditions, but driver may be alerted and have to take over. Level 4: A car is able to operate without the driver in the right conditions, but only under certain conditions such as road type or geographic area. (i.e. Google Firefly) Level 5: A car is completely driverless and can operate on any road and any condition. The driver can simply sit or even sleep there. Approach This project requires many components from having the golf cart itself to implementing the app itself. For the golf cart, it would require a camera that can perform edge detection which is necessary to detect objects that are in its way to avoid accidents. A system would need to be built into the golf cart to give it the ability to brake, accelerate, or even possibly change lanes if necessary. The same system would also need a GPS to know which buildings on campus it would need to stop at as well. As for the app, it would require the ability to send a signal to the cart to tell it where the cart needs to go.

Handheld Robot Assistant Objective We all know we have Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, and others that we can use through speaking commands and in turn they can make calls, text, play music, etc. However, what if you had a physical, robot assistant that could help you beyond some of these commands? It would have the ability to walk/crawl around to any destination you tell it to. And given a camera, it could also have the potential of taking pictures or video for you just by the sound of your voice. Military Purpose The purpose of this project would be more along the lines of espionage. It would have the same purpose as a drone to infiltrate locations of interest to gather intel before an operation involving military groups. The idea of the robot being so small and discrete makes it ideal for hard to reach vantage points and won’t alert the enemy presence, allowing the party using the device to gain the upper-hand on their opposition. Approach First, we would have to acquire the physical body of the robot itself to have legs with claw-like tips that would help it to move from any surface. The system within the robot itself would need to be compact and powerful enough keep the robot going for quite some time. The programming would contain an AI (artificial intelligence) that would allow the robot to continue learning what the user wants and be able to act affectively. The robot assistant would also require listening devices and cameras for hearing and sight.